Cultural Dessert

Thursday, July 24, 2014

'Two Gentlemen of Verona' by William Shakespeare

24 July 2014On
Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon to see 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' – one of
Shakespeare's earliest plays, and possibly his first comedy. It's not
often performed (the last RSC performance on the main Stratford stage
was 45 years ago) and you can see Shakespeare developing the
technique that he would use to create later greater works. But Simon
Godwin's Royal Shakespeare Company production is great fun and well
worth seeing. It's fascinating to spot the prototypes for scenes in
'As You Like It', 'Twelfth Night', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The
Winter's Tale' and other plays. And I enjoyed watching a Shakespeare
play without knowing exactly where the plot was heading. 'Two
Gentlemen of Verona' is a fairly bonkers romp and the RSC's
swashbuckling production reminded me of the marvellous Not Man Apart
production of 'Pericles Redux' we saw in Edinburgh some years ago
(reviewed here in August 2008). The RSC cast were all impressive –
with Roger Morlidge giving a great comic turn as the servant Launce.
The RSC is very good at introducing wave after wave of stunning young
actors. Michael Marcus, Mark Arends, Peal Chanda and Sarah Macrae,
who played the four young lovers, were all excellent – and all four
are in their RSC debut season. But the star of the show was
undoubtedly the lurcher Mossup who played Launce's dog Crab. Mossup
was clearly an experienced actor and it was good to see that she had
her own biography in the programme (she has previously appeared in
'Legally Blond' (in Glasgow), 'Casualty' and 'The Tudors' on TV, and
the film 'The Invisible Woman'!). I also enjoyed Nicholas
Gerard-Martin channelling Morrisey in his desperate singing of 'Who
is Silvia?'. 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' is a hoot.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

24 July 2014The
Northampton Symphony Orchestra Friends' Concert, each July, always
feels like an 'end of term' party. This year it was also our final
concert with conductor Alexander Walker. Alex has been conducting NSO
since 2009 and, looking back over the past five years, he has been
presided over some stunning concerts and I think he has helped to
create a marked improvement in our playing. Alex has been a
reassuring presence during concerts, often steering us calmly to
safety when a wrong entry threatened to derail our performance. And I
think we have learned a lot from his particular knowledge of, and
passion for, Russian music. My personal highlights from Alex's tenure
as our regular conductor include the incredible experience of playing
Mahler's 'Symphony No. 6' (reviewed here in November 2011), a
stunning performance of Richard Strauss’ ‘Four Last Songs’ with
Katherine Crompton (featuring an exquisite horn solo in ‘September’
by David Lack) (reviewed here in November 2010), Shostakovich's
immense ‘Leningrad Symphony’ (reviewed here in November 2013) and
our 'Love and Death' concert earlier this year (reviewed here in
February 2014) which included the Richard Strauss tone poem 'Tod und
Verklärung' ('Death and Transfiguration'). Alex's final NSO
programme, last Sunday, included Dvorak's tone poem 'The Water
Goblin' (a lovely piece), the 'Danse Macabre' by Saint-Saens and
Rimsky Korsakov's rousing 'Capriccio Espagnole'. But I most enjoyed
playing Wagner's 'Siegfried Idyll' – an achingly beautiful
expression of love.

Friday, July 18, 2014

'Piano Concerto No. 3' by Peter Lieberson

18 July 2014The
American composer, Peter Lieberson, died in 2011, leaving an
extensive legacy of orchestral, chamber and vocal music. I've been
listening to his 'Piano Concerto No. 3' in a new recording by by
Steven Beck and the Odense orchestra, conducted by Scott Yoo. The
three movements are based on poems by Pablo Neruda, St Francis of
Assisi and Charles Wright. This is clearly modern classical music,
but with the grandeur of a 19th century romantic concerto.
Serious, thoughtful and intriguing. I look forward to exploring other
music by Peter Lieberson.

Monday, July 07, 2014

'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'

7 July 2014

Regular readers will remember I am a big fan of the novels of Anne Tyler (see, for example, 'Noah's Compass' reviewed here in May 2010 and 'The Beginners Goodbye' reviewed here in March 2013). My first experience of Anne Tyler was her 1985 novel 'The Accidental Tourist' (still a favourite) so it was interesting to go back to an earlier work, from 1982, 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant', which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Suzanne Toren. Like nearly all Anne Tyler's novels, 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' is a family story set in Baltimore. In this case we follow the lives of Pearl and Beck Tull and their three children, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Each chapter is written in the third person, but from the point of view of one member of the family. The narrative is non-linear, with some seminal events revisited from different viewpoints to reveal more than was originally obvious. It's a beautifully constructed and beautifully written novel, full of delicate, heartbreaking moments. Anne Tyler achieves the same trick as Jonathan Franzen did (much later) in 'The Corrections' (and Andrea Levy did in 'Small Island') of making us empathise and sympathise with each member of the family in turn, allowing us to root simultaneously for the opposing sides in each argument. Whereas, in 'The Corrections' the mother is desperate to bring her children together for one final family Christmas, here Ezra is forever trying to get his relations to remain at the same table for the duration of one proper family dinner. Ezra, his brother Cody and sister Jenny, are brilliantly drawn characters – each with distinct voices and characters but sharing enough traits to make them totally believable siblings – clearly three parts of a singe whole, demonstrating both the frustrations that drive families apart and the ties that inexorably bind them together. 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' is a very sad tale – none of the protagonists has a happy life and there is little of the humour that characterises later Anne Tyler novels. Nevertheless it is an excellent executed and painfully moving book.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Midsummer Mischief: 'The Ant and the Cicada' by Timberlake Wertenbaker and 'Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.' by Alice Birch

4 July 2014

Last Thursday we were in Stratford-upon-Avon to see two of the RSC's new 'Midsummer Mischief' plays. 'Midsummer Mischief' comprises four short plays commissioned to mark the 30th anniversary of The Other Place and performed in a pop-up theatre on the stage of the Courtyard Theatre (which currently stands on the site originally occupied by The Other Place). We saw 'Programme A' which was directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman. 'The Ant and the Cicada' by Timberlake Wertenbaker is a contemporary Greek tragedy which explores democracy, art and commerce. It is a relatively conventional play but uses some gentle audience participation to make us complicit (“we are all Greeks”). 'Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.' by Alice Birch is a much more experimental piece, consisting of a series of apparently disconnected scenes in which unnamed characters challenge traditional views of sex, gender and work. The writing is witty, funny and thought-provoking and I liked the way recurring phrases and references emerge to link the scenes. I always used to like The Other Place for the way it got you closer to the actors, stripping away the distraction of the big production values of the old Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage and allowing you fully to appreciate the brilliant acting. The new thrust stage Royal Shakespeare Theatre brings the audience much closer to the action and has managed to recreate some of the excitement of The Other Place on a much bigger scale, but it was still nice to be reminded of the charm of the RSC's smallest stage.

'Henry V' by William Shakespeare

4 July 2014

In 2012 – the year it celebrated its 50th anniversary – Toddington Amateur Dramatic Society attempted its first performance of a Shakespeare play. Sue Sachon's production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (reviewed here in May 2012) was a triumph, and last week we were back at the TADS Theatre in Toddington to see her direct 'Henry V'. Sue had added framing scenes to link Shakespeare's examination of war with more recent conflicts. In 1939, as war is being declared, a village theatre company is about to perform 'Henry V'. One of the cast is suffering from shellshock and experiencing flashbacks to the trenches of the First World War, before taking his place on stage as The Chorus. It was really interesting to see 'Henry V' in context, having recently seen the RSC productions of 'Richard II' (reviewed here in December 2013), 'Henry IV Part 1' (reviewed here in April 2014) and 'Henry IV Part 2' (reviewed here in May 2014). I spotted nuances and references to the previous plays that I had not seen before. 'Henry V' is a very different play to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' but the TADS production – again presented in the round – was equally excellent. In particular, Peter Carter-Brown's performance as the King would not have been out of place at the RSC. There is little comedy in 'Henry V' but Peter Carter-Brown showed a lightness of touch in the occasional comic moments to suggest it would be fascinating to see him tackle a Shakespeare comedy. And the 'Franglais' scene between Princess Catherine (Lea Pryer) and her maid Alice (Janet Bray) was wonderfully funny.

About Me

Since September 2005 Robin Simpson has been Chief Executive of Voluntary Arts, which provides a universal voice for approximately 63,000 voluntary arts groups, across the UK and Ireland, involving more than 10 million participants in creative cultural activities. A keen amateur French horn player, Robin is currently a member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. Robin is a perennial ballroom dancing student, a frequent theatre-goer, an enthusiastic reader of contemporary fiction, an insatiable consumer of classical and world music and a keen blogger at www.culturalplayingfield.org and www.culturaldessert.blogspot.com